Frank A. Banks, chief construction engineer of Grand Coulee Dam, was considered the man who "put the Columbia River to work," according to newspaper accounts.

He was from New England and heard about the West from fellow University of Maine engineering students, who had traveled to Montana. So intrigued was Banks by their tales that after graduation in 1906 he left New England, where his family had lived for more than two centuries, for the West.

Grand Coulee engineer Frank A. Banks was at one end of the two-man saw as the last remaining pine tree was chopped down in the Grand Coulee reservoir.

He worked on various Reclamation Bureau projects until he was named Grand Coulee Dam's chief construction engineer in 1933. Banks and John Savage, the chief designer, determined the dam's appearance and how it would be built.

Banks wasted little time after arriving at Grand Coulee. Despite years of investigation, no one had identified the best place for the dam. With one clerk and a stenographer as his entire staff, he began.

"Banks needed an engineering staff and he needed it quickly," states "Grand Coulee: Harnessing a Dream" by Paul C. Pitzer.

The book continues: "Round-faced, bespectacled and soft spoken, Banks exhibited the precision of an engineer and the authority of a good administrator. He was calm and with an even disposition and a knack for winning the good will and active cooperation of those around him.

"Pacific Builder and Engineer called him 'one of the most engaging personalities in the construction world of the Far West.' In the eight years it took him and his assistant, Alvin F. Darland, to supervise Grand Coulee construction, his black hair, which had just started to show a touch of gray, turned to white."

In 1950, Banks was presented the Award for Distinguished Service, the highest service commendation given by the U.S. Department of the Interior. The presentation was made at a luncheon which followed the dedication of the dam and Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake by President Truman.

Several months later Banks retired but continued to live near the dam, which was one of six major dams Banks built on five rivers in his 44 years of government service. He remained an adviser to the bureau. At the time of his retirement he had the longest record of active service in the bureau. He died in 1957.

Banks Lake, the equalizing reservoir for the upper section of Grand Coulee's irrigation project, is named for him.